


Icing on the gingerbread

by fucktacles



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Asexual Character, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, D.Gray-man Secret Santa 2019, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Secret Santa, Wordcount: 5.000-10.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22084162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fucktacles/pseuds/fucktacles
Summary: Allen brought a Christmas tree taking up half of their living room. He flooded the fridge with Christmas dishes he couldn't touch. Replaced all the soaps and shampoos with Christmas scented ones.It was barely the first week of December and Link dreaded what else his flatmate was gonna pull out of his stockings.Written for D.Gray-Man Secret Santa 2k19 for anon
Relationships: Howard Link/Allen Walker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Icing on the gingerbread

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your patience and Happy late Holiday! Also Happy New Year c:
> 
> This fic was written for a SS organised by @dgmsecretsanta2k19 at tumblr.
> 
> Hope you like it uwu

„This is not going in our living room.”

„Oh, yes it is,” Allen countered without sparing his flatmate a single glance. He was too busy looking around the room to find the best spot for the Christmas tree he just brought.

Link put his book down and straightened his back, assuming more confrontational position on the couch.

„It’s barely first of December,” he pointed out.

Allen sighed, his shoulders sagging and the tree dropping heavily on the nearest wall.

“I knooow. I’m so late with this,” he whined before getting back to positioning the tree in the middle of their living room with determination worth of a kindergartener. Link watched him with no sign he was even considering helping out.

“If I knew you were such a Christmas freak I would reconsider moving in,” he commented, not picking up his book but choosing instead to watch the sad comedy in front of him with a slight distaste on his face.

“Well, sorry for not giving a heads up,” Allen muttered, cutting down the net holding all of the branches together with a pocket knife.

The tree sprung free, its green fragrant branches bursting outwards and spilling little green needles everywhere. It took up half of the living room’s space.

Link grabbed his book.

“I’m leaving.”

Allen finally looked up from the tree but all he was met with was the sight of Link’s back retreating into his bedroom. He frowned.

“You’re not gonna help me decorate it?” he asked, not hiding his disappointment. He hoped he’d get to share his Christmas joy with his friend.

“No,” was all he got in answer, along with the sound of closing doors.

He looked back at the big tree he bought and was now supposed to dress up all by himself. He sighed. Untangling the Christmas lights alone was not gonna be easy.

Link avoided the living room. This meant whenever he wasn’t in his room he was in the kitchen, watching with both dread and poorly hidden awe Allen’s ministrations. Between the two of them, he was the cooking one. He did it quite frequently and in big quantities too, due to his appetite. But this? This was starting to border on insane amounts on food. An apocalypse-is-coming rations even, one could say.

“You do remember Christmas is in three weeks, right? You have more than enough time to do all of this.”

“I’m gonna freeze it,” Allen shrugged not looking up from the pots. “So I won’t have to worry about the food later. Which reminds me,” he finally turned around, setting his grey eyes on Link who immediately felt the need to hide at the sudden attention. Allen seemed to be consumed only by Christmas for the past few days. “Do you want to help me with the gingerbread cookies? They always turn out inedible when I do them.”

Link snorted. Of course they do.

While he was great at cooking, baking was usually left for Link, as he would burn down anything and miss the right proportions by a mile.

Link smiled at him.

“Not a chance.”

Allen’s face fell into an _almost_ adorable pout.

“Why not?”

“I’m not letting you drag me into your Christmas madness.”

Allen frowned. He turned around and stirred the three pots standing on the stove before turning back.

“Does that mean you won’t join me on the Christmas dinner? Or help with anything at all?”

“No,” Link answered only to see his reaction. To no surprise, he pouted again.

“But it’s a family holiday,” he said.

“I’m not your family,” Link reminded.

To his mortification, Allen’s face hardened into an unreadable mask. He turned back to the pots, shrugging.

“Guess you’re not.”

Link watched his back, mulling his next words in his head, before rolling his eyes and giving up. He stood up.

“Ask me again a week before Christmas. At least. It’s way too early to be this hyped,” he said and left the kitchen. He felt his friend’s eyes on the back of his head, but he didn’t turn back. He escaped to the safe haven of his bedroom, the delicious smells of Christmas food following after him.

Soon, the sound of soft Holiday tunes came from the kitchen, slithering under his door along with the scent of spices. Link groaned and dropped heavily on his bed. The Holiday season barely started and he felt drained already.

Allen entered his apartment and immediately assumed a fighting position. Something felt off. The smell of cinnamon and burning made him throw his bag away in a hurry to get inside and see what was happening.

“Motherfucker,” he heard from the kitchen and followed the voice. There was his angry blond flatmate, slowly bursting into a stream of German curses at the sight of burnt and uneven gingerbreads in his hands.

Allen looked at the calendar.

There were still almost two weeks until Christmas.

“What are you doing?” he asked, looking at his flatmate curiously.

The man was too angry to be ashamed of being caught on the task he assured he would never put his left pinky on.

“I’ve never baked gingerbread before,” he gritted out. “And you are, for some weird reason, excited about them, so I wanted to practice and at least make them edible. “

Allen smiled at him, which immediately made the blond’s frown deepen.

“Can I join you?”

Link scoffed at him.

“No.” He turned around to study the recipe once again.

Allen finally took of his coat to join him in the kitchen anyway. Link didn’t say anything when he stood next to him.

“I told you it’s about the company,” he reminded. “I consider you my family now too,” he added to be clear.

Link sighed, pulling the bag of flour back towards him. He wasn’t going to deny it this time. He knew he was being a dick before but silence was all he could offer right now.

“Why do you even like Christmas so much,” he asked instead, finally turning to his Allen.

He was standing closer than Link anticipated and he ended up with way too close view of his steely determined eyes than he’d like to.

“I mean,” he coughed, turning back to the table. He didn’t dare to take a step back though, and he felt himself sweat from the proximity. “It’s so fake. People hate each other the most during this time. They fake being happy families. Fake for their neighbours and relatives. And don’t get me started on the amount of money they spend and food they waste. It’s all about who buys the best present,” he scoffed fully aware he got away a bit, but also ready to expand the topic if needed.

Allen looked outside of the kitchen, at their colorful Christmas tree.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Christmas is terrible.”

Link frowned at him

“What.”

Allen didn’t look back at him and stayed silent for another minute before elaborating.

“I hate what Christmas is. What people do with it. What stores do with it. The commercials and companies. But I like the _fake_ Christmas.” He smiled sourly to himself. “The happy ending movies, the aesthetic of snowy hut illuminated by lights and the smell of hot chocolate. The warmness of family gathering in front of a fireplace. I like what Christmas are advertised to be but aren’t,” he finally looked at his friend. “Do you get it?”

Link looked at him dumbfounded. And then slowly nodded.

“Kind of,” he said, the frown not leaving his face, though. “What about your father?”

Allen looked away again.

“Mana died before we could celebrate it properly,” he said. “And Cross…” His expression turned sour. “He either has no idea how calendars work or is too far away for the cards to get on time. Once I got a box of semi melted chocolates with all the caramel ones missing. In the middle of April.”

“What the fuck,” Link muttered, making Allen chuckle because, it did sound ridiculous. The blond tapped the counter in front of him. “Okay, so it doesn’t sound like you have a lot of fond Christmas memories. And yet you’re so freaky about this,” he wondered out loud, frowning.

Allen rolled his eyes and bumped their hips to push him out of the way. Link let him but stayed close, too occupied by the story to even notice their proximity anymore. The younger man started pouring ingredients into the mixing bowl.

“There was one Christmas when I just met Cross. We were visiting his friends; I think they might have raised him or something,” he shrugged. “We ate a huge dinner, Cross got drunk as he usually does; they played carols and got an old board game out of somewhere that we all played together. Cross won, obviously, but I’m pretty sure he cheated,” he scoffed at the memory, but there was a pull of fond smile at the corner of his lips.

“You cheat in board games too,” Link pointed out with a raise of eyebrow.

“Where do you think I’ve learned that,” he grinned back at him.

“There was also last year,” he continued. “When I visited Japan with Lenalee. I haven’t seen Lavi and Kanda since back then. Christmas feels right only with friends around.” His shoulders sagged again as he remembered how far away his friends were. But then he cheered up again. Or at least tried to. “Which is why I invited Lenalee and Anita this year. Hope you don’t mind,” he smiled charmingly.

Link gritted his teeth at that delivery. But then composed himself.

“No, it’s okay.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

And it was worth to see that genuine smile again.

Link took a long inhale of breath.

“Why the fuck do I smell cinnamon.”

“Oh, you’ve noticed?” Allen pulled on the collar of his pajama shirt and sniffed a bit. “I got a new body wash. Christmas edition.”

“Of course you did.” Link made a face.

Allen only grinned at him. The man huffed and buried himself deeper in the blankets.

“So? What is this? Home alone? Elf? One of the thousands of Christmas romcoms?”

Allen snorted while tapping on his laptop set in front of them.

“Grinch. You should like this one.”

“Should I, now.”

“Just shut up.” Allen rolled his eyes and started the movie he chose. Then he pulled on Link’s blanket. The man let him take one corner, but didn’t pass on commenting.

“You have your own blanket.”

“It’s too far,” he murmured, settling in next to him like a fucking cat. Link rolled his eyes but let him do whatever. He knew he would change his position at least ten times during the movie anyway.

When he finally stopped moving and their knees were pressed together, Link reached for one of the cups Allen made for them. He looked at it suspiciously.

“It smells even worse than you.”

“I don’t know how you didn’t anticipate I’d get a Christmas spiced tea too.” Allen shook his head like he was disappointed in his friend.

“Honestly, me neither,” he admitted and took a sip. It wasn’t half bad. Actually, it made him feel even warmer inside. Of course, Allen noticed, but he just flipped him a bird before he could comment.

He suffered through the sappy movie and Allen’s constant shuffling. As the end credits rolled in, he had his legs thrown over Link’s lap.

“That was. Dark.”

“I know, right?” Allen smiled at him.

“Hanging himself on Christmas ties?”

“Yeah, I know!” His smile widened.

“Grinch is a fucking psycho.”

“Right?” Allen was outwards grinning at him.

“I kinda liked it.”

“I knew it!” Allen whooped. Link rolled his eyes but couldn’t help a smile of his own. Then he tapped the calves resting on his thighs.

“Move, I gotta pee.”

Allen groaned but lifted his legs so Link could slip out from under them. Then he started tapping on the laptop again.

“How do you feel about animation?” he yelled after Link who just opened the bathroom door.

“Not particularly fond of it,” he answered before closing the door behind himself.

“That wasn’t a no!”

Link shook his head in fondness he could express now that he was away from Allen’s sight. When he went to wash his hands he recognized the smell of cinnamon. He looked around and just as he feared, all the soaps and shampoos were replaced with Christmas scented ones. And to his even greater mortification, the omnipresent Christmas theme was starting to grow on him.

“So, I haven’t seen this one yet, but Lavi said it was great. It’s like a Santa Claus origin story.” Allen was jumping up and down excitedly when Link came back into the living room.

“Sounds like shit,” judged Link but settled back down nevertheless. “Shit that hasn’t been done before at all.”

“Hush it. I trust Lavi’s opinion,” he scoffed, starting the movie and putting his legs back in Link’s lap.

“I wouldn’t.” Link got comfy once again, resting his hands on Allen’s calves. “He stayed in Japan with Kanda.”

“Touché.”

The movie turned out not half bad. It was good enough to keep him awake despite the late hour and it being the second movie in a row they were watching. The annoying shuffling next to him helped too.

“Stop moving,” he finally gritted out and in answer there came a huff from his right side before a warm body settled heavily on his shoulder.

“Fine.”

And Allen stayed like that, somehow finally managing to stay still. But apparently the price for it was silence.

“I ship them,” he said out of nowhere in the middle of the movie.

Link needed a moment to process that thought. Then leaned away too look at the mop of white hair on his shoulder.

“Excuse me?”

“Like Klaus and-“

“Yeah I figured. Walker it’s not even daddy kink anymore, it’s grandpa kink.”

“We don’t know how old he is!” Allen straightened to look him in the eyes with determination to fight for his ship. Link straightened up too and paused the movie. He didn’t want to miss too much.

“He has a big ass white beard!” Link pointed out.

“I have white hair too!” countered Allen.

Link opened his mouth but let out only a confused, “But-“

“His eyebrows are dark! He’s bleaching his hair because he doesn’t like the silver streaks!” Allen pointed victoriously at the screen as if he just came up with an unbeatable argument.

“What the actual fuck, Allen.”

“And Jesper is of age anyway,” Allen continued heatedly. “So they are both consenting adults!”

“Please shut your mouth, I’m getting a headache.”

“That’s because you know I’m right.”

Link only huffed and leaned back against the couch as Allen restarted the movie. The younger man kept his distance until near the end, when he leaned heavily on his arm again.

“I’m so sleepy,” he whined. “How much is left?”

“15 minutes,” answered Link after checking.

“Uh. Pinch me if I fall asleep.”

“Just sit up.” Link frowned.

“But you’re so comfy.” Allen nuzzled his arm, sending jolts of warmth down to his fingertips.

“Then you’re just gonna miss the end,” he shrugged, knowing full well it will disturb the other man. Allen let out a huff of breath and straightened up but still leaned heavily on Link.

For the last five minutes Link didn’t know where to look. At the resolution of the movie or his friend’s struggle with sleep – his muffled yawns and the dropping eyelids. It was hilarious.

He turned the laptop off as soon as the movie ended and Allen finally yawned openly.

“Did you like it? Because I sure did,” he asked, slowly slipping down the back of the couch as soon as the support of Link’s arm disappeared.

“It was okay,” Link shrugged.

“And are you shipping Klesper right now?”

“It’s a terrible ship name and you know it.”

“Answer the question.”

Link sighed heavily. He closed the laptop shut and pulled Allen up from the couch.

“Noooo,” he whined. “I wanna stay here.”

“Your back will hurt if you sleep on the couch,” Link reminded him, pulling him away from said furniture. “And I’m not listening to your complaints again.”

Allen only mocked him under his breath but let himself be steered in the direction of his room. But before the doors closed behind him he remembered there was still an unanswered question in the air. He turned around and opened his mouth.

“Just a little bit,” Link admitted with a sight because he knew he would bug him about it the next day anyway. “Now goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Allen grinned at him and approached his bed as the doors clicked shut.

Only then did he realize he was still wrapped in Link’s blanket. But he wasn’t going to give it back now. He fell on his bed and buried his face in the fuzzy blanket, inhaling its scent and quickly falling asleep.

Link on the opposite side of the corridor buried his face in his covers too. Only he wanted to fight away the scent of Christmas spices.

“This is the most annoying thing I’ve ever done.”

“Wait until I bring out the sprinkles.”

“Jesus power bottoming _Christ_ , why do I live with an insane person?”

“Ditto.” Allen flourished a few packets of sprinkles from his messenger bag, because of course he had to hide them. If link found them in the kitchen he’d throw them away immediately.

“It’s gross. It’s a blasphemy against baking.” He scrunched his nose, squinting at the artificial colorful shit contaminating his retinas.

“It’s for decoration,” Allen reminded him with exasperation.

“Exactly!” Link threw up his arms. “Good pastries don’t need them!”

“Christmas gingerbreads need them; it’s basically a Christmas law.”

Link rubbed his nose bridge. And his eyes and his face. He inhaled a breath.

“Okay. Okay then. Let’s get this over with.”

Allen grinned at him but he completely ignored that. He focused on getting an even outline on his gingerbread men. He thought they looked naked without them. Meanwhile Allen was ruining everything by giving them colorful mismatched eyes and buttons.

Then there was some quiet cursing from him and Link looked up from decorating gingerbread baubles to check what it was about this time.

“Really? You’re doing this to yourself, you know that? Somebody’s gonna eat that anyway. You’ll be doing this,” he made a vague hand move in the direction of his flatmate leaning close to the table top to give one of the angels a sophisticated sweater made of small sprinkle beads, “for half an hour and eating it will take a minute.”

“It’s fun.”

“Yeah, I can hear the fun in your pained cursing.”

Allen stuck out his tongue and Link did the same. Because he was an adult.

Soon he was done with the icing while Allen was still only halfway done with his stupid sprinkles. Link took some of them without a word and started decorating the cookies too. At first he was just throwing them here and there but eventually he got into a mind space similar to folding origami or smoothing out frosting on a cake.

“I like this rainbow hair.” Allen pointed at one of the angels that just had a shit ton of sprinkles acting as hair.

“Thanks. I was inspired by early Dadaism.”

Allen snickered.

“Next year I’m buying gold food dye and pearls and we’re going full Baroque.”

“That sounds like a lot of icing.”

“Well, we have plenty left right now so I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem. Why didn’t you use all of it?” he asked, moving in closer to look at the remnants of the icing.

“I thought you wanted to eat it so I left some for you.”

“Ew!” Allen made a face. “It’s basically pure sugar.”

“Well you’re putting it on cookies anyway. Don’t be shy, dig in.” He smiled, pushing the bowl towards him. Allen looked at it with scrunched nose.

He put a finger in the white icing.

And smeared it down Link’s cheek.

The man turned to him slowly with murder in his eyes.

“Or it could make a decent face scrub?” Allen suggested innocently.

“I hope so. Because I’m gonna scrub that smile off your face.”

Allen squealed in alarm but Link’s reflexes helped him catch the smaller man before he could run away. He pulled him in by his waist and grabbed a handful of sticky icing.

“Nonono-“ Allen tried to wiggle out of his hold, but the grip on him was iron tight.

“I’d advise not moving if u don’t wanna get it into your eyes.”

Allen squeezed his eyes shut and tensed up but stopped squirming. The feeling of sticky paste getting smeared on his face made him let out a muffled squeal.

“I think it’s gonna be the best one yet, “ Link hmmed in thought as Allen’s eyes hesitantly fluttered open.

“I don’t like that look on your face,” he whined.

“Oh I thought you liked sprinkles.” Link smiled his most terrifying charming smile.” Don’t move now.”

He trapped him against the table and reached over him for the sprinkles to put them on the icing mask on Allen’s face. The nose was first to get decorated with the red ones and then he moved on to work on the mouth.

He wasn’t surprised to feel the lips’ movement under his fingertips. He expected Allen to curse him under his breath. But they trembled and parted under his touch and that sight, even covered in white sugary icing or maybe because of it, made him suddenly feel warm all over.

He made the mistake of looking up and meeting the gaze of grey stormy eyes staring back at him with a hazy look that made the warmth even more disturbing.

He looked back down quickly and finished the lips half assedly both due to the shaking of his fingers and because the hot puffs of breaths on them were very distracting.

But then came the eyes and Allen wouldn’t even have the decency to look aside. Link hurried with them even more to get out from under his gaze.

When he finally leaned back, Allen still didn’t break eye contact and Link wasn’t able to do that neither.

“Do I look tasty now?” the younger man asked, his voice strained.

Link finally managed to avert his eyes but made it even worse by looking at his lips covered with white icing and red pearls of sprinkles. He more sensed than noticed a shift between them, the intention to lean in radiating from his flatmate that made him push away, releasing the man from his grip.

“You look like diabetes on two legs.” He made a face. “Go wash yourself.”

“Link-“

“Clean up, Allen,” he pressed, but the man didn’t move. The silence stretched for a second too long.

“Do you not want to lick it off me?” Allen waggled his eyebrows to make it sound like a joke.

But it wasn’t a joke. Not to Link. And he had a nauseating feeling it wasn’t a joke to Allen neither. He puffed out a long breath and counted to ten to compose himself.

“I do,” he admitted eventually and Allen’s breath faltered. “But I would barf from all this sugar, so _go_. _Wash_. _Your face_ ,” he finished in a quiet strained voice, punctuating each pause by leaning a tiny bit closer.

The icing made nothing to hide Allen’s flushed cheeks.

“O-okay,” he stammered and quickly pushed away from the table to run to the bathroom.

As he passed by their arms brushed and both of them felt the simple touch reverberate throughout their bodies.

After a week of swiftly avoiding all of Allen’s attempts to talk it out, Link heard an angry slam of the front door followed by equally angry footsteps and shuffling of furniture that made him check his bedroom lock again. He knew Allen wouldn’t invade his privacy like that but a few days earlier he also thought he could look his flatmate in the eye and lie about his feelings because they weren’t reciprocated.

But now at the slightest chance they might be, he was terrified and at loss of what to do. The initial plan was to deny them infinitely, not to confront them.

It wasn’t until a few hours later when he gathered the courage to leave his bedroom and check what all the commotion was about. What he saw nearly made him turn tail and leave for Japan himself.

Mistletoe hung over every doorframe and under every lamp.

Allen wouldn’t possibly want to kiss him this bad. Would he?

He turned on his heel to escape the living room.

“ _Holy mother of-_ “ He clutched his chest in a sudden heart attack.

Allen was right there, leaning on the wall. He looked angry. And Link suddenly felt guilty.

“So?” he raised an eyebrow.

“So?” Link parroted feeling himself sweat. He wasn’t ready for this. And he probably was never going to be.

Allen looked pointedly at all the mistletoes surrounding them.

“Fuck,” Link groaned realizing his defeat. “You’re-“

“Handsome? Beautiful? Irresistible?” he interrupted him, his mouth slowly curving into a teasing smirk.

Link let out an annoyed grunt before stepping into his personal space, shoving all the fear deep down so it wouldn’t surface for at least a few seconds until he was done.

“Yes,” he agreed and _finally_ kissed the man in front of him.

Allen was startled for half a second despite it being his own ploy before impatiently kissing back.

“We’re not even under the mistletoe,” he breathed out after a few minutes. “Did I hang all of it for nothing?”

Link nosed at his cheek.

“They’re not going anywhere. We have time,” he said, kissing the tip of his nose.

“Speaking of time.” Allen pushed on his chest so he could look into his golden eyes. “Why did you avoid me for so long?”

Link didn’t want to say it out loud. But it was better to say it now than at some awkward moment in the future. He must have been looking for the right answer for too long, because Allen’s grip on him loosened. He tightened his own reflexively.

“Do you not want me after all?”

Link sighed.

“No.”

“ _What_.” Allen’s face turned cold and he dropped his arms completely but Link wasn’t letting him go now.

“I mean not like _that_. Not in a…” He looked to the side because it was so weird to say out loud and he never did that before. “Sexual way.”

He looked back at Allen, waiting for his reaction.

His face went from surprise through realization to relief and eventually anger.

Link got punched in the arm. Hard.

“Idiot, I thought you didn’t _like me_!” he yelled.

“Uh, so,” Link winced. Allen could throw a punch. “You don’t mind?”

“I don’t.” Allen shook his head and grabbed his cheeks to pull him down into a long, sweet kiss.

And then there was banging on the door.

They ignored it. But then it was followed by a yell and Allen froze in his friend’s arms. It took Link a while longer to identify the voice.

“Is it so late already?” He looked at the clock on the opposite wall.

“Impossible,” murmured Allen, turning in the direction of the door.

And then that familiar voice came again.

“Are you two finally boning? Did my mistletoe plan work?”

“Lavi?” Allen untangled himself from the blond’s arms, but was still too stunned in disbelief to reach for the door.

“You’re gross.” Another voice joined the previous one outside.

“Kanda?” His eyebrows shot up and he finally made a step.

Link couldn’t help a smile.

“Oh yeah.” He patted Allen’s shoulder as he went for the door. Allen followed him curiously. “I’ve invited your friends for Christmas.”

“What? From Japan?” Allen asked in shock, watching him unlock the door. There was a silent ‘ _finally’_ from behind them.

“I paid for their tickets, so don’t expect another present.”

Allen grabbed his hand before he could unlatch the last lock.

“How the _fuck_ did you afford that?”

“I might have cancelled my dojo membership.” Link shrugged.

“What?! I got you a new karategi!” Allen exclaimed angrily throwing his arms up in the air.

There came a cough from behind the door, as well as the sound of struggling.

“Your first lovers’ quarrel is very sweet and all but can you let us in? Kanda is getting… antsy.”

A muffled growl followed and Link finally let in Allen’s rowdy friends, stepping back to watch Kanda’s attempts at strangling his flatmate with a newfound fondness.

Allen looked around at their busy living room.

Christmas tree was moved to the side to make room for four more people. Staying in the kitchen felt too formal and the living room had cozy armchairs. One of them was shared by Lavi and Kanda who got tired of trying to shove the redhead off his lap. The other one was occupied by Anita, smiling at the bantering couple from above the brim of her cup of hot chocolate. Lenalee was sitting between him and Link, catching Kanda up on her academic research.

And there also was a Christmas postcard sitting on an empty plate at the end of the table.

‘ _Happy holidays to you and your friends, Allen. Your boyfriend tried to threaten me to come over for the Christmas dinner, but I’m kinda stuck right now. Go buy yourself a nice bottle of wine from me_ ,’ it read. Of course, there was no money for the wine attached. But Allen liked it anyway. Sure, Cross had to be bugged by Link to do it, but he did and Allen thought having a postcard on time was enough for a start. Maybe soon he would actually look forward to Christmas, not just its appearance.

He reached out behind Lenalee who still was gesticulating widely to Kanda. Lavi asked him about his job and he answered enthusiastically, his hand finding Link’s and tangling their fingers together.

‘ _Your boyfriend_ ,’ Cross had written.

What a shame they had to wait for their guests to leave to figure that out.

He risked a glance at his flatmate who despite his stubbornness throughout December now seemed to enjoy the company of Allen’s friends.

There was no hurry as long as they all were here.


End file.
